naples diaries part 2.
the roads here are flat and smooth, yet there is enough wind to facilitate lots of strength work. it is the closest you can get to being on a trainer without being on a trainer. and easy to zone out. once you get out of town, it is easy to find long and lonely roads with endless pine forests...the same pretty yet uniform and unspectacular landscape mile after mile. it is here that you find out if your aero position is cut out for long hauls or not...here you can ride for miles without interruption and your imagination can run wild.
the weather has been more than warm...hot...humid and windy. easy to fantasize about kona and what that must feel like.
i have put some long rides on the BLUE and i am falling in love. it is not without problems and un-expected expense. but i have never felt so comfortable and powerful on a bike, ever...it would be fair to say that we have formed a bond and are in the process of becoming one. now, if we can solve the issue of the SRAM front derailleur that keeps needing re-tuning, and the more than stiff job that BLUE did on the seatpost modification (i mean, you need a fucking hammer to get the seat out) then everything will be perfect. then i can spend wasteful hours contemplating the ideal hydration set-up for various distances.
wednesday was a double run day. the morning was hot, steamy, longish and with enough tempo to become painful.
in the late afternoon, i ran laps around the condo compelx through a rain shower. it was one of those moments of epiphany that you only get if you do weird shit like run in the rain while everyone else stands around looking at you from their garages thinking you are crazy. i ran in a steady, light mist and got to experience the most wonderful double rainbow i have ever seen. i had no smart phone, so no pic, you will have to imagine it...but i am really tuned into these things alot more these days. that morning i had spent 45 minutes with my daughter studying flowers at dawn and chasing rabbits on the golf course. she wakes me up to alot of things that might just as easily get ignored in the stress of daily life.
today i turned 44. not too much working out. a nice hour long swim and that was it. but it was enough.
i am still young enough to be stupid, but i am not young anymore. yet i feel timeless when i power down on the pedals and feel things responding like they never have. it is a gift, this strange, masochistic, self-centered, multi-sport called triathlon, or ironman. it affords the psyche an opportunity to travel to mythical places that nothing other than pushing through your own physical barriers until you discover that they were only figments of your imagination can.
human beings are outshone physically by animals on most levels, except perhaps, in endurance. i have come to realize that there are vast parallels and intersections between endurance and metaphor. imagination. dare to imagine what is possible. live it out. feel it in your mind and your body. be an endurance animal.
the weather has been more than warm...hot...humid and windy. easy to fantasize about kona and what that must feel like.
i have put some long rides on the BLUE and i am falling in love. it is not without problems and un-expected expense. but i have never felt so comfortable and powerful on a bike, ever...it would be fair to say that we have formed a bond and are in the process of becoming one. now, if we can solve the issue of the SRAM front derailleur that keeps needing re-tuning, and the more than stiff job that BLUE did on the seatpost modification (i mean, you need a fucking hammer to get the seat out) then everything will be perfect. then i can spend wasteful hours contemplating the ideal hydration set-up for various distances.
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| the BLUE on its maiden voyage |
wednesday was a double run day. the morning was hot, steamy, longish and with enough tempo to become painful.
in the late afternoon, i ran laps around the condo compelx through a rain shower. it was one of those moments of epiphany that you only get if you do weird shit like run in the rain while everyone else stands around looking at you from their garages thinking you are crazy. i ran in a steady, light mist and got to experience the most wonderful double rainbow i have ever seen. i had no smart phone, so no pic, you will have to imagine it...but i am really tuned into these things alot more these days. that morning i had spent 45 minutes with my daughter studying flowers at dawn and chasing rabbits on the golf course. she wakes me up to alot of things that might just as easily get ignored in the stress of daily life.
today i turned 44. not too much working out. a nice hour long swim and that was it. but it was enough.
i am still young enough to be stupid, but i am not young anymore. yet i feel timeless when i power down on the pedals and feel things responding like they never have. it is a gift, this strange, masochistic, self-centered, multi-sport called triathlon, or ironman. it affords the psyche an opportunity to travel to mythical places that nothing other than pushing through your own physical barriers until you discover that they were only figments of your imagination can.
human beings are outshone physically by animals on most levels, except perhaps, in endurance. i have come to realize that there are vast parallels and intersections between endurance and metaphor. imagination. dare to imagine what is possible. live it out. feel it in your mind and your body. be an endurance animal.
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